Peace

Good morning, Well Community Church. It is good to be with you as we are launching now into our second week of Advent, talking about the arrival of Christ and the anticipation that that builds and brings in us—or is at least supposed to—as believers. If I haven’t had the privilege to meet you, my name is Mike. I’m one of the teaching pastors here, and I get the great privilege of opening up the Word together and leading us through a season where we are meant to slow down and begin to long for things—specifically for someone, not some thing. We are longing back at the first advent of Christ and longing forward, ultimately, to the return of our Savior.

Our hearts are really invited into that kind of disposition, that we would stir our affections and refocus our hearts and our minds on the reality that the Messiah has come. Brad did a tremendous job last week of walking us through that first theme of Advent: the idea of hope. We have one for whom we have hoped. From the very pages of the Old Testament, we see he was anticipated from the very beginning—all the way back to the pages of Genesis 3, where there would be one who would come to deliver a death blow to Satan and deal with sin and suffering once and for all. That King would come through the line of Jesse; he would be a Davidic King. We saw ultimately that this one we have hoped for was described in Isaiah chapter nine by the prophet Isaiah this way: “The government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6 (NASB)

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

It’s that aspect that I would love to drill down on today: the idea of peace. In this second week of Advent, we think about what is promised to us as believers. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but in this season, if I had to pick a word that described my disposition and the condition of my soul right now, “peace” is not what would come to mind if I’m honest about it. Maybe some of you can identify with that.

Years ago, when the Apple Watch came out, I bought one of these smart devices to wear on my wrist. Many of you probably wear these as well—Fitbits and other things. I use mine for a number of things, but one of the things I do is track my sleep. I used to just know in the morning how I slept. My wife would ask me how I slept, and I would say, “Oh, good” or “Bad.” Well, now I don’t know anymore. I have to get my phone out and look and say, “Oh, well, here’s how long I slept. Here’s where my heart rate was all evening long. My SpO2 levels and oxygen saturation look solid last night, Michelle.”

As I’ve been tracking these things diligently for years—because I’m a nerd and I like the data—what it has told me in these last few weeks is that even while I’m sleeping, my body is not at peace. My heart rate has been elevated. My deep sleep is in the toilet. There are so many things going on in my life, and I would imagine in yours as well, that cause a potential for a lack of peace, specifically in this season.

You think about the things that open the door for this season. We come out of Thanksgiving, where we’re all content and grateful and thankful for all that we have, and then the very next day is Black Friday. Go murder people in parking lots for a flat-screen TV—that will bring you the peace and joy of the season! The irony is that we are invited into something so different than that. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the very Prince of Peace himself says this season doesn’t have to be defined by those things. And yet, for so many of us, myself self-confessionally included, peace is not always at the forefront.

The Meaning of Shalom

Peace was one of the primary things the Old Testament saints hoped the Messiah would bring. They used the word Shalom. We often think of it literally as the absence of war, and it certainly included that. In fact, Psalm 147 says that God makes peace in your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

Psalms 147:14 (NASB)

He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.

One of the hopes was that there would be an absence of war that the Messiah would bring. Maybe now more than ever, we hope for that as we watch the news on a daily basis. The people of the Old Testament were actually instructed to pray for this.

Psalms 122:6 (NASB)

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ’May they prosper who love you.

In fact, if you’ve been on a trip to Israel with us, on our last days in the city of Jerusalem, we will walk the wall surrounding the city and we will do just this. We will pray for the Shalom, for the peace of the city, that God would bring peace within those borders. Israel was told to seek the very peace of the people among whom they lived. Even as exiles in the land of Babylon, God instructed them to seek the welfare or the Shalom of the city they lived in. Moses would even pray this over his people at the end of the book of Numbers—a prayer that you’ve heard many times, no doubt.

Numbers 6:24-26 (NASB)

The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’

It’s one of the things the people of God hoped for, and Moses, as their leader, prayed it for them. But true Shalom, true peace, is so much more than simply the absence of war. The idea the Old Testament saints hoped for was the idea of welfare, wholeness, prosperity, and a completeness that would touch literally every aspect of their life—from their health to their spiritual lives, to their physical lives, their emotional state, and their mental and relational health. That idea of Shalom was an all-encompassing idea, and Israel was told that God would one day bring this for his people.

Psalms 29:11 (NASB)

The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.

This was the greater and different kind of peace that was expected and hoped for by the people of God in the Old Testament. By the way, that is exactly what Isaiah had in mind when he said the Prince of Peace is coming. “Prince” there doesn’t necessarily mean the idea of royalty; it has the idea of one who will administrate, one who will bring about peace. These people believed that one day, peace would be true in them and of them—that the Messiah would bring about this completeness or wholeness here on earth. And as Jesus comes to earth and claims to be that very Messiah, he says that he brought that expected peace and so much more.

So here is what I would love to do in our time together. I would love to look at two New Testament passages and explore this idea of peace in two different aspects: the peace that we have with God and the peace of God.

Peace With God: The Work of Reconciliation

I want to invite you first to turn to Colossians chapter one. We’re going to look at verses 19 through 23, as Paul unpacks this idea of what it means to have peace with God. Paul begins by speaking of Jesus, saying it was God’s desire and his full pleasure that the fullness of God—all that was God—dwelt in Jesus.

Colossians 1:19 (NASB)

For it was the [Father’s] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

Seventeen times in the New Testament, we are told that Jesus is both fully man and also fully God. John drives this point home at the beginning of his gospel using the analogy of “the Word.”

John 1:1-2 (NASB)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

That phrase is meant to take us all the way back to the creation account in Genesis 1:1. While the Father is the architect of all that we see, when that happened in the beginning, Jesus Christ—though not in bodily form yet—existed eternally as the second member of the Trinity. He was there with the Father as he created all these things. Then John goes on to describe a time where something changed.

John 1:14 (NASB)

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This second member of the Trinity became human. This perfect, eternal, preexistent deity took on humanity, a second nature in that moment. Theologians call this idea the hypostatic union: 100% man and 100% God at the same time. That was the uniqueness of who Jesus was. No other individual in history has ever done this. Paul takes that idea in verse 20 and says that because of who he is, Jesus can do something unique that no other human or being could ever do.

Colossians 1:20 (NASB)

and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say], whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Paul says here that through Jesus, God reconciled us back to him. Do you know what that word “reconciled” means? Paul uses the word katalasso. Lasso means to change; kata means to change back. That’s exactly what reconciled means—that you and I were changed back to the way we were before. Yet, Paul actually uses a slightly different word here. He adds a prefix and says apokatallasso. Apo means “complete” or “back to something or someone.” Three times Paul uses this word, and all three times it describes what the cross has done for you and for me.

I want you to notice what we were reconciled back to: “to himself.” This emphasizes the restoration of a previously harmonious relationship that, at some point, was in disunion. Verse 20 tells us how this was accomplished: “having made peace through the blood of his cross.” The instrument through which God reconciled us back to him was Christ on the cross and his shed blood. Jesus’s death in our place resulted in humanity being at peace with God. For those who believe in Jesus, Paul says this even more bluntly in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 5:1 (NASB)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Now, all this language begs a very interesting question: Why did God have to “make peace” in the first place? The idea of needing to make peace actually implies the presence of something else—a lack of peace, or even a state of war. The reason why is spelled out in verses 21 and 22.

Colossians 1:21-22 (NASB)

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, [engaged] in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach–

I want you to notice how Paul describes all humanity apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. He says we were “alienated,” separated from God. He says we were “hostile in mind.” In fact, according to the book of Romans, that hostility was directed toward God; in our flesh, we are hostile toward him. He goes on to say we were “engaged in evil deeds.”

Romans 5:10 (NASB)

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The Bible speaks of all humanity, apart from the saving work of Christ, as alienated, hostile, evil, and enemies of God. Paul is intentionally using the language of war here to describe the absence of peace that you and I have apart from what God has done on our behalf through Christ.

Now, if you’re new to church, this language can feel a little shocking, possibly even offensive. You might ask, “Is that really how God views me? Is that the reality of fallen humanity?” The truth is, there is a war going on all around us that, at one point in our lives, all of us were completely unaware of.

The Bubble of Fake Peace

Eighty-two years ago, this last Thursday, we remembered the events that happened at Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 AM Hawaiian time, 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft launched a surprise attack. In that moment, eight naval battleships were damaged, four were sunk, 180 aircraft were destroyed, 2,400 Americans lost their lives, and an additional 1,200 were wounded. This event was the line in the sand; it was the moment we declared war and entered World War II.

At that very same moment, 5,000 miles away on the East Coast, the Washington Redskins were getting ready to play a football game against the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a game that would decide Washington’s playoff fate, and it was very important to them. As news reached the stadium via telegraph, the Redskins management learned about the attack. They heard that the nation had gone to war.

But in the day before smartphones and Twitter, those in the stadium were oblivious to what was happening outside those walls. The decision-makers at Griffith Stadium chose not to alert the 20,000-plus spectators that the U.S. was at war. Team owner George Preston Marshall later confessed, “I didn’t want to divert the fans’ attention from the game.” So, while war was happening all around them, for hours, those 20,000 people lived inside a bubble of fake peace.

The reality is that for many of us, that is a perfect picture of our spiritual lives. There is a war happening around us that we are oblivious to. For years of my life, I lived in this fake bubble, having no idea of the significance of my own sin, underestimating how God viewed me as a result of that sin, and overestimating my own ability to do anything about it. It wasn’t until I heard the reality of Scripture that I understood my situation.

Romans 6:23 (NASB)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is what I deserved because of my nature and my hostility toward God. But the good news in the midst of this fake reality is that God solved that problem for you and for me. That is the beauty of the Gospel. That is the heart of what Paul says as he finishes this section.

Colossians 1:23 (NASB)

if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Paul says that like a tree firmly planted with deep roots in life-giving soil, so long as your hope is in the Gospel and what Jesus accomplished on your behalf, you can have peace with God. God made peace with us; he took the first move. Through Jesus on the cross, through his shed blood, he once and for all ended the war on sin, resulting in peace with God for all who would trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

The Peace of God: An Internal Reality

That peace with God, when properly lived out, leads us to the second aspect: the peace of God. I invite you to turn back to John chapter 14. Jesus is meeting with his disciples, and his death on the cross is only hours away. He is having this last meal with them, and he sees the lack of peace they have. He speaks words of comfort to them.

John 14:27 (NASB)

’Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

I want you to notice three things about this peace of God. First, Jesus says this is not something you seek after and earn. Rather, he says, “Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you.” This peace of God only comes after we have peace with God. When that is embraced, the peace of God can flow out of us. It is unique, and it is actually inaccessible to those who do not know Christ as their Savior. This peace is accomplished for us, not by us.

Secondly, he says the same peace that marks his own life is offered to us. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you.” He is offering the same peace that is characteristic of his relationship with his Father. Paul describes this peace as mind-blowing.

Philippians 4:7 (NASB)

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This peace is beyond all human faculties to understand. It’s the type of peace that allowed Jesus to sleep on a boat in the midst of a storm. It’s the peace that allowed him to deny the attacks of Satan for forty days in the wilderness. It’s the peace that, as he went to the cross, allowed him to say, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” That same peace is offered to you and to me.

Lastly, Jesus says the peace he brings is “not as the world gives.” If all the Messiah was supposed to do was bring an absence of war, a good military general could have done that. You don’t need a God-man to bring about a military truce. But Jesus says his peace is much more complex because it isn’t just external; it’s internal. It doesn’t come from “out there”; it comes from “in here.”

He is saying, “I’m not going to give you the kind of peace that is here today and gone tomorrow.” The peace the world offers is fragile. Health can fade. Bank accounts can dwindle. Circumstances change. All the things we put our hope in are temporary, and we have no control over them. Jesus says, “My peace is different because it is eternal.”

John 16:33 (NASB)

‘These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.’

One of the characteristics Jesus desires for those who follow him is peace. Paul says it like this:

Colossians 3:15 (NASB)

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

This is interesting. The peace we have with God—that vertical peace where the war is over because of the cross—carries no command. There is nothing we are called to do other than trust and believe. It is a reality God established because he loves us. But regarding the peace of God that flows through us, Paul says, “Let the peace of Christ rule.” There is a responsibility on our side. There is a choice to be made. Of all the things competing to rule your life, Paul says to let the peace of Christ sit on the throne—not anxiety, not Black Friday, not stress.

A Moment of Reflection

How are you guys doing in that area? My life, in this moment, is characterized in some ways by a lack of peace. I battle back and forth with it. There are so many things competing to push the peace of Christ off the throne—things I can’t control, things I can’t fix, but things I want to worry about anyway.

As you think about your life, there may be two realities. For some of you, the reason you’ve never felt peace with God is because you’ve never embraced the Gospel. Maybe you’ve heard about Christ, but you’ve never put your trust in him. God has solved the problem for you, but you must receive the gift. This is why Christ came. This is why we celebrate the incarnation. If you’ve never embraced that peace, would you consider doing so this morning?

For many of us who have embraced the Gospel, we still feel an absence of peace in the daily things. As I mention that, what is God stirring in you? Are there relationships that are “off”? Are there people who come to mind where the relationship is anything but peaceful? Are there situations at work, school, or home that are robbing you of peace? Maybe it’s finances—money is tight, and you don’t know how the bills will be paid. Maybe there are big decisions on the horizon that you have no control over.

What are the things robbing you of the peace Christ offers? What would it look like to trust the Prince of Peace with those things? I want to give us an opportunity to acknowledge that—to say the quiet part out loud.

I invite you to close your eyes and bow your heads. Sit with the Lord for a moment. Whatever God brought to mind—whether it’s one of the things I mentioned or something else entirely—would you just be honest about it? Remember the words of Christ: “I have spoken these things to you that you may be at peace.” Take a minute to sit with him and be honest.

Father, the reality is there are so many things out there that have the opportunity to rob us of what you have so clearly offered. I pray the same prayer Paul prayed for the church at Philippi: that the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, would guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Help us, in a season of chaos and hurry, to remember the Prince of Peace who came as a baby, fully man and fully God. He was at complete peace with you, and he offers that same peace to us. Help us to trust in that and to live at peace with you and the world around us. We thank you for our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.